Halogenated benzamides as ligands for cerebral dopamine receptors

In the past several years the authors' has synthesized a series of high affinity iodine-123 and fluorine-18 labeled substituted benzamide ligands for SPECT and PET visualization of the dopamine D-2 receptors in brain regions with low receptor density outside the striatum. Radioiodination and radiofluorination in high yield and high specific activity was achieved by using the tributyltin precursor and nucleophilic displacement of the saturation analysis revealed that the optimal striatum-to-cerebellum uptake ratio in the rat brain is highly correlated with the product of Kw and KD. The authors have used [125I] and [123I] epidepride to detect extra striatal dopamine D2 receptors in vitro by saturation analysis and in vivo with high resolution SPECT imaging